A patent application mainly consists of a specification, a claim and a drawing. The claim is generally defined by a preamble having a subject matter, and a body having a plurality of elements together with their detailed technical definition. The elements can be classified as a primary element and a secondary element according to interrelationship there between in the claim. The element to which the present invention is referred includes the subject matter, the primary element and the secondary element. An element-noun is referred to data that is retrieved from the claim. The detail description for the element-noun is found in the specification. It is noted that a reference numeral corresponding to an element-noun is shown in the specification as well as the drawing. The same reference numeral represents the same element-noun in the specification and the drawings such that the reading of the patent specification becomes easy.
Taking US patents as an example, the element-nouns thereof are not shown with reference numeral to which the element-nouns belongs in the claim. It causes the inconvenience to a patent reader when he/she reads the patent claim for technical analysis, since the definition and the explanation of an element-noun scatters in different sections of a patent application, including specification, claims and drawings. Especially when a patent reader watches a computer monitor to read the patent claim, the limited size of screen is only large enough to display a portion of patent claims not mention the specification and the drawings such that the most of other sections that shows the reference numeral of the element-noun cannot be seen.
In other words, when a patent reader reads and analyzes the technical contents of a patent, he/she needs to turn to other pages in the specification to find out the reference numeral which corresponds to the element-noun in desire. Thereafter, he/she needs to turn to the pages in the drawings to find out the specific position to find out the reference numeral. The above has to be repeatedly continued to have all element-nouns in the claims to be found while he/she is reading the claims, the specification and the drawings. Moreover, a patent reader has to mark up the reference numerals in the claims to conclude the meaning of the claims in order to exactly understand the technical features of the patent claims.
That is to say, a complete understanding of a patent claim can only be achieved by cross-reference of the claim, the specification and the drawings. It is inevitably time-wasting when a patent reader has to forward and backward reading different sections in a patent application. Even if a patent reader can open several different windows for obtaining a reference numeral in these difference sections, it is also bothering. The above situations explain why a patent reader is difficult to read a patent in a comparative short time. Moreover, when the amount of element-noun is plenty, an error tends to be caused.